Five years. It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since the 9/11 attacks. I still remember very clearly where I was and what I did that fateful day.

I remember getting up and almost instantly feeling like something was wrong. I had no idea what – just a strange sense of uneasiness. No one else was home. I think my first indication of what happened came from My Yahoo page when I went online. I turned on the TV and coverage was on like every channel. It was surreal. One of those things you never imagined would happen in your lifetime. It was a little scary. I can only imagine what it felt like for those people that were actually there in New York to bare witness.

I went to work that afternoon. I was still working at Blockbuster Video right by my house at the time. I think I had already stopped updating Grimstone for the second time. When I got there, my boss went to get gas for his car, as so many people were doing in anticipation of a price hike that didn’t come. I was closing with I think Heidi that night. I think she was late or something. I think I was by myself for a bit. It gets a little hazey after that. I think Heidi was there for a while and then had to leave and got Holly to cover for her. And I think maybe Heidi came back later. I’m not sure. All I remember for certain is that while Holly was there, I went to get some food and she made some mistake on the register and caused a headache for me for later as I was the manager on duty. I remember I was really pissed at her. And in the explanation for the error that I wrote up on the customer’s account, I called her a “dumbass” and that got me written up a couple days later. It was a weird, frustrating day. I don’t think things were ever the same between Holly and I after that. We were pretty good friends at one point before that. I think I was more annoyed though with Heidi for sticking me with Holly in the first place.

That night, after work, I was restless. Too many things on my mind, not just about the events of that day. I remember going for a walk. I contemplated stopping by a friend’s house but decided it was too late for that. I went down to the Osco not far from work. I forget all that I bought that night, but the important thing I got was a pair of small spiral notebooks. I was really interested in screenwriting at the time, in addition to my regular cartooning and the stuff. So I wanted to have something to keep with me to jot down ideas. I carried one of those notebooks with me everywhere I went. I wrote a lot of good ideas in those notebooks. The original idea for my stop motion film Poker Night is written in there, along with scores of ideas about Grimstone. I filled up the first long ago and nowadays I carry around my PDA instead. But I still have both notebooks. The second one contains almost entirely ideas about a big Grimstone story I’m working on. Something I might do someday as a graphic novel or something.

Anyway, that’s my 9/11 experience. Certainly not as life altering as others’ experiences that day, but it still had a longlasting affect on me.